The present invention relates to a process for development wherein a color developer is coated onto a silver halide color photosensitive material such as a color paper or color negative film to form a thin film of the developer. In particular, the present invention relates to a process for development wherein only a small amount of a developer is used.
In the development of silver halide color photosensitive material, attempts have been made at reducing the quantity of the waste liquors by reducing the quantities of processing solutions such as a developer, bleaching solution and fixing solution as far as possible. To meet the purpose, there is proposed a process wherein a developer is coated onto the photosensitive material to reduce the quantity of the waste developer. This process includes Viscomat system wherein the processing solution is applied by a hopper-coating, Bimat system wherein a processing solution is applied to a web to form a thin layer and the web is put on the photosensitive material, etc. These methods are described in, for example, the 11th and the 12th paragraphs of `Neblette's Handbook of Photography & Reprography`, the seventh edition published by Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., N.Y. in 1977 and Japanese Patent Unexamined Published Application (hereinafter referred to as `J. P. KOKAI`) No. 61-202360. Although no waste developer is formed by these methods, a considerable thickness of the coated layer is required and the developer consumption cannot be reduced so much as desired. Other problems are that the developing reaction rate is low because of insufficient stirring of the developer and that the washing load is heavy.